In today’s data-driven world, making sense of large amounts of information can be a daunting task. Whether you’re a student, a researcher, or a business professional, being able to understand and interpret data is crucial. This is where Tableau comes into play – a helpful visualization tool that simplifies data analysis and makes complex information easier to understand. I decided to try out Tableau Public, which is free, as part of the Advanced Google Analytics certificate I am working on. Tableau offers a cloud version and and a desktop app.
What is Tableau?
Tableau is a software application that allows you to transform raw data into interactive and understandable visualizations. Instead of staring at rows and columns of numbers, Tableau helps you create graphs, charts, and dashboards that present your data in a more engaging and insightful way. This can be incredibly useful for spotting trends, patterns, and outliers that might be hidden in the raw data.
Why Use Tableau?
Imagine you have a dataset containing information about students’ test scores. Instead of trying to make sense of a long list of scores, you can use Tableau to create a bar graph that shows the average scores for each subject. This graph instantly tells you which subjects students are performing well in and which ones might need more attention.
I found the interface easy to use and the learning curve not too difficult. Here are some examples of some simple visualization tools I have tried thus far using a csv file containing data about lightning strikes and went on to create an interactive dashboard: View Here
Overall, I am really enjoying getting to see insights into my datasets. I am looking forward to learning more about Tableau’s capabilities.
